


Hey! As told by Gems

by OneCoolCat



Series: Hey! As told by Gems [4]
Category: As Told By Ginger, Hey Arnold!, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: "Observatory thingies", A lot of apologies, Baseball, Bike, Boats, Chi can't catch a break in this episode, F/M, Fantasy, Freckles, Friendship, Geese, Hanging Out, Hospital, Hotel, Motion Sickness, No more bread equals angry ducks, Recovered Memories, Slice of Life, Small waterfall, Swans and cygnets, Temporary Amnesia, The harbor, This isn't reincarnation, Water, feeding ducks, injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-10-17 18:23:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20625509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneCoolCat/pseuds/OneCoolCat
Summary: Episode 4: Both accidentally destroying her bike and trying to win the friendship of the girl she met on the first day of school, Seren tries to give her the best day ever, with Nila, Xanthe and Blanca's help.I totally got this idea from reading Reverberations by ThatDastardlyCerberus. You should also check out Three Gems and Four babies.Also, check out Practically-pearlperfect (Madam_Violet) who also had some ideas after reading Reverberations. Little Stars and Reverberation shots.Long story short, this is just a fict on the four diamonds doing stuff. Following after the second to last war, which caused Steven to be separated from his gem, then after the last war that destroyed the Crystal Gems and somehow the diamonds reform into babies, Taffy and her husband, Sterling takes care of the diamonds. Fast forward 14 years later, we see how they're going about with their lives *shrugs* Nothing more. This is just something to read, if you have nothing else to read and you're waiting for your main ficts to come out. Welp, hope y'all like this even at least a teeny tiny bit *thumbs up*





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

>   
Paying homage to:  
Steven Universe season 1 episode 4: Together Breakfast  
Hey Arnold season 1 episode 1b: Eugene's bike
> 
> Episode 4: Both accidentally destroying her bike and trying to win the friendship of the girl she met on the first day of school, Seren tries to give her the best day ever, with Nila, Xanthe and Blanca's help.

Seren stood in front of Xanthe's door, the last person she thought would want to accompany her in going downstairs. She'd called out to Taffy and Sterling, knocking on their door, then she called out to Nila's door, then Blanca's door. (Though she didn't eat, she still absolutely loved making food. She found it peaceful). 

For the past three days, the family had met up around 7 o'clock to go down to the cafeteria near the lobby. But this time, no one answered, most likely still asleep. Not only did Seren start knocking on their doors before their usual meetup time, but they also had a long night out, having went to a nearby tennis court the night before. Blanca didn't sleep, but she was probably in the middle of her mediation, since it was still petty early. 

Seren knocked on the door once more, the three packs of popcorn still in the same hand. Nothing. She backed away from Xanthe's door. 

"Everyone's out." she said aloud to no one. _Out like a light_ she joked in her mind. "Guess I'm makin' us breakfast." She walked down the hall to the nearest elevator. The elevator door opened with a ding and she went inside, pressing the button for the lobby floor. 

It was a slow Tuesday morning. Only a few people were sprinkled about the cafe, getting their breakfast, still half asleep as they sipped a bit of their coffee or nibbled on their toast, while some piled their plates up high, making their way to the elevators to go back up to their rooms.

Seren went over to the breads and muffins section. Freshly made French toast, pancakes, waffles and various types of baked muffins and plain bread laid across the table. She grabbed two of the biggest plates she could find and grabbed two handfuls of waffles, stacking them up high on both plates. She pushed the two stacks together. She went over to wait in line for the microwave. Three people in front of her.

She took the popcorn packets out of her pockets, threw the three packs in the microwave and turned it on. The contents whirled around as one pop was accompanied by another pop, then another, until the kernels started popping simultaneously. She used that time to scurry over to the table of fruit salad. Various syrups and sugars laid by the fruits. She picked up the whip cream and the chocolate syrup. "I'll be back for one of _you_ later." she told the basket of strawberries. She walked over to a nearby table, being careful to not squeeze the whip cream or the chocolate sauce too hard while she had them tucked under her arms. The two waffle-filled plates careful held in both hands. She placed the plates on the table, then the two bottles before going back to the microwave. She made it right before the beeps of the microwave. Steam wafted from the machine as she opened the door. She held the three bags in her hands, the hot bags not bothering her palms. She placed the bags of popcorn on the table and picked up the chocolate sauce first, spraying it across the waffles and around the plate. Then she opened the bags of popcorn and sprinkled them about the waffles.

A few people stopped to stare at the concoction she was making.

She threw the empty bags in the trashcan and grabbed the whip cream, squeezing the cream at the top of the waffles. She put the container down to gawk at the masterpiece in front of her. "Look at you. You are out of control!" She left the table. "And now for the finishing touch." She went back to the fruit table and inspected the strawberries, choosing only one big one. She went back to the table and hovered her hand in the middle of the stacks. She slowly placed the strawberry in the middle. "Just right." she whispered. She took a step back to look at the finished work. "It's done!" she shouted. A few patrons looked back at her, giving her the it's-too-early-in-the-morning-for-that look. She wasn't paying attention to them, focused more on the breakfast. 

There was a loud bang and black smoke started to seep from the moving doors from the back room. "The stove! Look at the stove!" she heard someone in the back room say. "I got the stove, just open some windows before the alarm goes off!" said another voice. "Good going, Mikey." said another voice. "It wasn't my fault this time!"

A guy ran threw the doors and started opening the windows. "Sorry folks." he said to the people in the cafe area.

Seren was about to sit down, until she realized that she forgot the utensils. "Oh! I forgot our forks and knives!" a beat later. "And our strawberry and blueberry syrup!" she got up and left the table to pick up the tems. As she was walking back, a butterfly had flew in the building from one of the opened windows. Seren placed the syrup bottles and the utensils on the table as the butterfly swirled around her, fluttering across her face. "How pretty." she said blissfully. She held out her finger.. Then suddenly, she wasn't in the cafe anymore.

_"Oh my goodness, look! Another one!" Seren pointed at a monarch butterfly. It flew past her and landed on a slim figure's face. The wings covering up her expression, but the startled yelp confirmed how she was feeling. "No wait! Don't move." Seren whispered. "I want to see if I can catch it." Her slim companion stood there, hands clasped in front of her light blue, frilly skirt. Seren got closer, hands raised. She inched closer and closer.. "Aaaaalmost theeeere." _

_  
_

_The butterfly fluttered away, just as Seren was about to grab it. She watched the butterfly flutter on by. "Oh no, it's getting away!" Seren ran across the wet and muddy terrain. "Wait up!" said the companion._

_Seren ran between trees and thick, prickly bushes. The butterfly was nowhere in sight. She turned around. Neither was her companion. "Oh boy.." she muttered. "Hey! Uh.." _what was her name? She looked familiar. Or from what Seren had seen of her, she looked familiar, having that the butterfly was blocking most of her face.. _The ground vibrated as she heard some trampling and growling noises from behind her. She turned around, peering through the thick trees. Something was coming towards her and she jumped out the way just as two zebras went pass, then five more. Seren took cover by a tree, watching as a heard of zebra, accompanied by giraffes galloped and trotted on pass. "Wow.. what are they.." she whispered to no one. The two heards went on pass and a few moments later, a panther jumped out from the bushes. It stopped in it's tracks, panting deeply as it locked eyes at Seren. "Oh, why hello there." Seren cooed, grinning from ear to ear. She took a few steps towards the predator. "Looks like we both got separated. Whoa!" The panther swatted at her, growling. She took a few steps back, hands up. "I'm not looking for a fight." the panther steadily approached her. "Did I do something wrong? I, I wasn't going to do anything to you." the panther lunged at her and she turned around, making a run for it. The butterfly came back, zipping along her face. She gasped "It's you again." A surprised look on her face. _

_The butterfly flew right. "Want me to follow you?" Assuming just that, she ran after the butterfly, the panther right behind her. She followed the butterfly through the forest until the trees became thicker and harder to run through. There was the sound of rushing water nearby. She lost the butterfly again. _"Seren!" _A voice shouted her name from far away. She turned around. But the panther didn't lose her. She jumped back, falling back into the thick leaves. She slid through them and landed in a river, the river quickly pulling her downstream. She was pulled into a waterfall and just as she was plummeting down, she managed to grab an errant vine from a drooping tree overhead. She swung along the water, as a few alligators snapped at her bare feet. _

_She landed on the edge of the muddy terrain and seen a familiar figure in the distance, in the clearing of the trees. "It's you again!" she shouted, running up to her. She turned around and she finally seen her face. She really did look familiar.. "Where were you?! I was so worried!" she shrieked. Seren just looked at her, she stopped, just as she was about to wrap her arms around her companion. The figure looked embarrassed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell. Please forgive me, my d-.. my quartz. I was just... I just can't go back without you. I can only imagine what Yellow and Blue would do if I came back empty handed. And not only that but...I just don't want anything happening to you. "_

_Seren wondered who Yellow and Blue were, but she decided not to ask. "Sorry, I just really wanted to catch that butterfly."_

"Seren!" _she heard that voice again, a bit closer. _

_The figure sighed softly. "Don't tell me you were going to take it back to Homeworld?"_

_Seren gave her another look, not sure what Homeworld was._

_"Oh, don't give me that look." she said softly. "You know how those two can get..I doubt bringing it with us would open their eyes. And who said that thing could even survive on Homeworld?"_

_She was talking about those two people again. Who were they? And is Homeworld some kind of place that's deamed unsafe for organic matter but not for them? Seren shrugged. "Maybe those two people will change. We can still try. Oh maybe that thing CAN survive on Homeworld." she smiled. _

_The figure smiled softly at her, chuckling. "Looks like you won't be taking no for an answer.. I guess if we can find another one soon, we can take it back._

"Seren!" someone put a hand on Seren's shoulder. The butterfly flew off Seren's finger as she turned around to face Nila. She clutched her forehead, that nagging, throbbing pain the memories accompanied as always.

"Oh! Sorry.." Nila regretted. "I didn't know you were.." 

"Nila, what's Homeworld?" Seren cut her off.

Nila looked like she got hit in the gut, her face a grimace. "You were on Homeworld?" she asked.

Seren shook her head. "No. Someone was telling me about it. She and I were going there.. You.. You were actually there? What is it?"

"I.." she looked away. "I'm sorry, Seren, but I really, really don't want to talk about it.."

"It's that bad.."she said it half as a question and half as a statement.

"Ooooo, now this looks interesting." Taffy said from across the table. The two sisters moved their attention to their parental guardian.

Seren tried to wave off those lingering thoughts from her memory. She forced a smile. "Oh! Yeah, uh.. I, uh, wanted to make something different today. Actually, I kinda wanted all of us to make it together, but everyone was still sleep." she turned to Blanca who was straightening the utensils on the table on the other side of the cafe. "Or meditating." she said. 

Xanthe walked over with a bowl of cereal. She schooched Seren's breakfast plates away with her fingerd and sat down, placing the bowl in front of her.

Seren pouted. "Gee, Xanthe. Glad you appreciate my hard work." 

"Xanthe, did you really have to grab a bowl of cereal instead?" Taffy asked.

"No offense to Seren or anything, but I need to stay fit." she held her arm up, her other hand grabbing hold of a muscle. "And eating that?" she nodded at the plate. "Is not healthy. Just two plates full of sugar rush, is what it is."

"Hey." she whined. "I most certainly DO take 'offense' to that!"

"Xanthe, be nice." Taffy grabbed a chair and sat down. "It was very nice of Seren to make us some breakfast."

"But Taffy, three out of FIVE of those ingredients don't even count towards breakfast." Xanthe took a spoonful of cereal into her mouth.

Taffy ignored her, turning to Seren. "So, Seren. How did you come up with this.. combination? It looks familiar."

Seren took a seat and pulled a seat out for Nila, who still looked a bit down. She gave her a small "Thanks." and scooted up to the table.

"Well.." Seren looked away. "I kinda found this book laying around. I.. think it was yours or Sterling's since it was by some of your stuff at the house. I thought it was a regular cook book that you bought from the store, so I read through it. It took me a few pages to realize that it was actually homemade recipes from someone." she looked at Taffy, to see if she would make an expression to that. She had a plain expression on her face. Seren continued. "And one of the recipes was this. A 'Together Breakfast'."

Blanca came back over and joined the table. "They really need to be neater and more organized." she grumbled. She looked at the two plates, then she looked at Seren, giving her a look.

"A Together Breakfast." she answered her silent question. "Yes, I know it's not, _exactly_ healthy." she rolled her eyes, then cut her eye at Xanthe. She turned back to Blanca. "But it's in a stack, so I guess you can say it's a.."

"Oh, don't say it.." Xanthe groaned.

"balanced _breakfast_." she made a face at everyone at the table. No reaction.. Then Xanthe coughed.

"Pffft, that was a good one. Anyway, I thought we could make this together and eat together. I couldn't reach anyone this morning, so I made it myself. But we can still eat together! Wait, where's Sterling?"

"He had to leave early. Gotta call from one of the ruins. They think they found something that could be of importance." said Taffy.

"Aww.." Seren drawled. "He probably would've enjoyed this."

"Don't worry, Seren. We can do it another time."

"Like tomorrow?!" Seren piped up.

"I.. don't think it's best to eat this back to back."

Seren deflated.

"Now, now, Seren. We'll do this again soon. Now come on, I don't want y'all to be late. Let's eat up."

They each started taking a share of the food.

"You sure you don't want any, Xanthe?"Seren poured the blueberry syrup on the waffle and smeared the piece of waffle around the chocolate syrup and the whip cream. She ate it. 

Xanthe huffed. "Fiiiiiine. I'll take this strawberry." she plucked the strawberry from the plate and ate it. "There. Now technically I shared the Together Breakfast with you."

"I'll take what I can get." Seren smiled and went back to her food.

......

After breakfast, the four sisters decided to walk to school since it wasn't too far from where they were staying. Also, they wanted to give Taffy more time to head up and meet Sterling.

"Come on, Seren. We gotta cross the street before we're late for school." Xanthe ran across the street.

"Okay, right behind you!" Seren made it across the street just as the red hand appeared on the sign. The cars started driving pass again.

They were now a block away from the school and they started to see more teens in the area.

A boy suddenly ran up to them. "Hey guys! Want to see my albino worm collection?"

Blanca and Nila took a couple steps back, keeping their distance.

The boy opened the brown box and pulled out one of the worms. "I call this one, Pinky." he held it up between Xanthe and Seren's face." Xanthe bat his hand away. "Uh, no thanks, Billy."

They walked around him. "Okay but you don't know what you're missing." he said.

Then another person came up to them."Look, Seren. I have a new scab!" she raised her arm. "If you squint _real_ hard, it looks like Texas."

Blanca and Nila looked away.

Seren squinted her eyes. "Yeah, I guess it looks like it."

"The crust part's the Alamo." the girl grinned.

"That's disgusting." Xanthe said under her breath. She grabbed Seren's arm and lead the group around the girl.

They were right in front of the school now.

Another kid came up to them. They stood there. "Oh boy, now what is HE going to do?" Xanthe grumbled.

The boy dugged into his pockets. "Uh.... Nougats?" he held various nuts, candied fruit, lint and other questionable inedible stuff. "Oh, uh, none for me, thanks. I had a big breakfast." said Seren.

The boy shrugged and walked away, smiling. He put the stuff back his pocket.

They started walking towards the school again. "Well, folks, I think we've reached the end of our dork parade." Xanthe looked around the schoolyard.

They heard a few horn honks and they and the other teens in the area turned around.

A young girl with jet black hair waving in the wind came striding on her bike.

"Chi!" Seren chirped. "And she's riding a really cool bike." 

The girl was riding a red bike with two flags on the back. A Japanese flag and a Delmarva flag. A horn and a bell laid between the handlebars. She rung the bell a few times. The teens started clamoring over how cool the bike looked. Chi stopped a few feet away from them. She didn't care too much for crowds.

Her classmates came over to her instead. 

"Where'd you get that?" asked one kid.

"Wow." said Stinky. 

"What did you do? Rob a bike store? asked another kid.

Chi got off her bike and took her helmet off. "No." she gave them a small smile. "My parents rewarded me for having such good grades ever since I transfered here.. It was rough, but I managed to pass all of my AP classes." she gave a victory sign with her hand. She put the kickstand down and let go of her bike. "All my life I've wanted a bike like this." she said softly. "It's the one thing I've ever wanted more than so many things. More than being politically famous. More than incredible wealth." she cut her eye at Courtney and Courtney scoffed, rolling her eyes. She covered her mouth as she said something to Miranda and Miranda nodded her head, snickering.

Chi continued. "It's my dream bike, you guys." she twirled and clasped her hands to the side of her face, fluttering her eyes."My dream bike." she walked back towards the bike. "And I actually have it." she smiled. She pulled an Ichiro baseball card from her pant pocket. "There's just one thing I would like to put in it." she tucked the baseball card in the spokes with a clothes pin. "よし！(Yoshi!) Alright!" she cheered. She got on the bike to test out the sound.

Consecutive "Ooooooooo's" amongst the crowd. Seren started clapping and Chi tooted her horn, smiling.

"I guess every dork does have her day." Seren heard Xanthe say to either Blanca or Nila. Nila stifled a laugh. "Xanthe, that's not nice." 

Seren stopped clapping. "She's not a dork, Xanthe."

Chi rode her bike to the bike rack and locked it up with the other bikes.

The school bell rung and everyone started going inside.

Seren noticed that one of her shoes was untied. "I'll be there in a sec." she told her sisters. She tied her shoe and got back up, tapping the first bike in the row. Seren walked on, not realizing what she she did as the previous bike hit the other in a row. The clanking noise nearby made them turn around and the second to last bike hit Chi's bike. She didn't secure the chain properly, the bike breaking from the rack and somehow rolling down the cement on its own. It didn't go far, stopping just over the edge of the sidewalk.

A sweeper truck came by, cleaning everything in its way. The bike was swept up in the wheels and spat back out. It fell back on the ground with a clank. It was bent up. Ripped up. Destroyed.

Chi's eyes went big, she shook her head. “いやだ。。。”she nearly stumbled down the stairs, moving past the crowd. "いやだ、いやだ、いやだ(Iyada, iyada, iyada) No, no, no.." she ran to her bike, falling down to her knees. She picked up the handle gently, and it broke apart from the body of the bike. She just stared at it.

Seren ran to her. "I'm really, REALLY sorry, Chi." she thought about putting her hand on her shoulder, but decided otherwise.

"My bike..." she wavered.

"I think it's history, Chi." said Xanthe.

"Chi, I'm sooo, so sorry." Seren apologized.

Chi shrugged, looking up at Seren."仕様がない(Shōganai) It can't be helped/Nothing can be done about it/It was inevitable." she plucked the baseball card from the bike and got up. 

.....

A few minutes later, one of the janitors went to pick up Chi's bike. She watched as the guy threw it in the dumpster.

Seren and Xanthe was looking from afar. "Man, I feel terrible about this, Xanthe."

"Look, Seren. It wasn't your fault. Stuff like this always happen to the geeky kids." the last warning bell sounded and Xanthe started making her way back to the school. Nila and Blanca already in their homerooms. Xanthe opened the door. "And of all the kids in the school, Chi's got to be the geekiest."

Seren grimaced at the title Xanthe placed on Chi as well as some of the other kids. She gave a deep sigh, going back to the school.

"Hey! Where's Pinky?!" shouted the boy from earlier down the hall. "Anyone seen my Pinky?" 

Miranda stepped on something and she lifted her foot up to see a squishy blob underneath. "Ew." she growled.

.........

The school bell rung and all the teens ran out the doors. Seren stepped out, her gaze going straight for the dumpster. She casually walked over, looking around first, then jumped into the dumpster to retrieve the bike and a few of it's parts. 

She met her sisters in front of the school. They looked at the bike in her hands.

"Guess you're going to try and fix that bike, huh?" Xanthe raised an eyebrow.

"Yup! Sure am!" She smiled. "I'm gonna fix this bike into tip top shape and give it to her tomorrow. Oh man! I can't wait to see the look on her face."

"Seren, you don't know the first steps of fixing a bike." Xanthe scoffed.

"Pffft, how hard can it be? All I have to do is put a few pieces together and straighten out the bent up parts."

"So you say~~."

"Well before you do anything to that bike, I think you should disinfect it." said Blanca.

Nila nodded her head enthusiastically, agreeing with her. "I can only imagine how many germs are on that filthy thing.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So for all of the four, five people who _do_ read this fic xP Sorry for the delay!!! BUT the chapters are finally here!! :D and I just kinda decided to put all of the chapters on here at once.
> 
> Also, I totally ripped off the word 'rockhead' from the fic Reverberations by ThatDastardCerberus. I just thought that word was hilarious, so I totally had to use it in this chapter xP

Thunder echoed through the hotel room and an occasional flash of light from the lightning brightened the room.

After thoroughly disinfecting it, with Blanca's help earlier, Seren was now ready for the biggest and last step. Actually fixing the bike. She started to take apart the bike, putting the pieces in certain piles. Then she started to pull on the bent frames of the bike. She could only straighten a few of the frame pieces, majority of them being to difficult to bent back. She eventually stopped/gave up to focus on the pieces she had taken off. She picked up two different parts, looking at them thoroughly. Then she looked at the bike. "Uh....." she put one of the pieces down, picking up another piece. "Hmmm.. maybe...?" she put down the piece and picked up the same piece from before. "Nnngg...This could be? Tchk... uh.." she whispered. She looked at all of the parts beside her, then she sighed. "Xanthe was right.. I have no idea how to put a bike together." she frowned. Then just as quickly, a thought came to her mind and she perked back up. "Wait.. Xanthe! She would know how!" she jumped up and ran out the room to knock on her door, ignoring her bare feet on the hotel carpet.

A few knocks later and Xanthe opened the door, wearing brown sweats and a plain white shirt. Seren thought she heard the Spanish channel on in the background. "Ah, well if it isn't Miss Seren herself." she gave one of her smug, Xanthe looks. She leaned on the door.

"Yeeess.." she sounded annoyed, but the smile on her face said otherwise.

"How's the bike coming along?" she beat Seren to the punch.

"Yeah... About that.." she looked guilty. "I _kiiiiinda_.. need your help with it.."

Xanthe snorted. "Knew it." she walked towards the back of the room. "Okay, give me a sec." she picked up the remote and watched the screen for a few moments. Seren thought she heard a lady crying on t.v and another person say "Lo siento." but Xanthe had the volume so low on her t.v, it was really difficult to hear. Instead of venturing into the room, Seren stood there at the door.

Seren assumed that the show must've ended, Xanthe finally turning the t.v off a few minutes later. "Okay, let's go." she took a card from her table and a sudden realization came to Seren. "Oh no!" she pat her pockets..Then slowly looked up at Xanthe, giving her a child-like "whoooops" kind of smile.

Xanthe sighed. "Let's go down to the lobby.._again._"

......

After pleading with the concierge at the lobby to give her another card, _for the fourth time that week,_the lady finally gave in and gave her another card.

Seren thought that Xanthe was going to say something about the mess in her room, but surprisingly, she didn't. "Okay, let's jump right in." Xanthe sat down in the middle of the scattered pieces of the bike. "Oh, this is an easy fix. I should be done in no time." she cheesed.

"So...What do I do?" Seren asked from a few feet away.

Xanthe looked up from her project, a screw between her teeth. She looked at Seren. "Just, hand me the pieces? Spray paint the bike, when it's done?" she shrugged. "I don't know." and went back to her work. "I don't really need any help."

"Oh.. Okay then." Seren slid quietly across the room and into the bed. She looked at Xanthe picking up pieces and putting them here and there. She eventually got bored and turned the t.v on, turning down the volume to not annoy Xanthe. She was watching a sponge and a starfish as they try to give a villain a reenactment lesson on how to be a good person. She'd seen the episode so many times, but it was still just as funny.

_"Ok, goodness lesson #2." said the sponge holding a remote. "You see someone struggling with a heavy package. What do you do?_

_The starfish started walking towards the villain, barely holding up the heavy box in his hands._

_"Excuse me, sir. I saw you struggling with that package. Do you need some help?-OW!!"_

Seren was already laughing, trying to hold in her laugh so she wouldn't distract Xanthe.

_The starfish had dropped the box right on the villain's foot. "Oops! Sorry. Can I start over?" he picked the box back up._

_The villain started again. "I noticed you was-OW!!!" the pink starfish dropped the box on the villain's foot a second time._

_"Oops. Sorry again." the starfish picked the box up._

_"Would-OWW!!!" the starfish dropped the box on his foot for the third time._

Seren was holding in more of her laughs, snorting. And trying to keep quiet for Xanthe made Seren want to laugh even more.

_"YRRRR!!! YOU BUTTERED. FINGERED. PINK THING! WHAT'S IN THAT BOX, ANYHOW!!??"_

_"My wallets." the starfish said casually._

_The villain roared in anger "AAAAAAHHHHGGGG!!!!" he grabbed the starfish by the top of his head-_

Seren was belly up in stifled laughter.

.......

It took Xanthe about an hour to pop and straighten the dints out and to put almost every piece back together.

Seren was now watching one of her top favorite shows that used to come on. And of all the episodes the channel could've been showing, it was actually showing one of her favorite episodes. And her favorite part was coming up. The two boys had just found themselves in a strange universe based on their own imagination.

_They were suspended in some kind of sky. Yellow and pink colors filled the sky. On the yellow part of it, green horizontal and vertical lines ran across it, that made it similar to a map, while blue lines zigzagged about the peach colored area. They were barely fitting on a green strip of road that was floating in the sky. A small house, a street sign and a chunk of dirt was placed randomly around them._

_A mirror was floating behind one of the boys. "Look around us. We GOTTA be rich!" he was so giddy._

_A roof was popped off the small house beside him as a little girl lounged out of it. "EVERYTHING'S BROKEN!!!" she yelled at him. "FIX IT NOW!!!!"_

_He turned around. "Shut you mouth, Sarah!!" he yelled back. Then he thought of an idea. "Or better yet, get RID of it." he pulled her mouth off. "I love taking thing's apart."_

_The mouth turned around in his hand and began biting his face. "Get her off, Double D!!" he whined._

_"Not a chance!" his friend wrote something down on his clipboard._

"Okay, almost as good as new." said Xanthe. She got up and started looking around.

_"Woooo!!!! Sarah!!!!" he whined._

_The girl was floating away on a black and white checkerboarded strip. Her eyes narrowed at him and her fists clenched in anger-_

Seren was still laughing at him getting bitten and how she just floated away, assumably, still biting him. She turned her head to Xanthe. "Hm? What was that?"

"I said it's almost done." said Xanthe, still looking around the room.

"What else does it need?"

"The brake cable..Where is it?"

"Mmmmm.." Seren thought. "I think I had put some of the pieces in my bag. "It's probably in there." she bounced off the bed and knelt down by her bookbag. She rummaged through it. "No.. It must still be in the dumpster."

"Then it looks like you'll have to wait to give her the bike."

Seren deflated. "But I really wanted to surprise her."

"Just, give it to her later. All you need is one little cable. I can put that on there in like, 5 minutes tops."

"I guess giving her the bike a bit later isn't too bad.." she frowned.

"Alright." Xanthe clapped her hands. "My job here is done." she walked towards the door and opened it. "Try not to damage the bike while I'm gone." she "joked.

"Will doooo." Seren drawled.

.........

The next morning, Seren decided to bring the bike with her. She was hoping that they would get to the school early enough to retrieve the brake cable so Xanthe could hurry and put it on, but, Chi was already walking up the same path they had taken yesterday to get to the school. She waved to the sisters and then her eyes went right to the bike.

"I'll wait here for her." Seren said at the intersection. "The school is only a block away."

They said their "see you later's" and the three sisters went on their merry way.

"Thanks for waiting up." Chi said as she approached Seren.

"No problem."

They started walking again, crossing the street. "Sooo.. I know you've noticed the bike in my hands." Seren set up the conversation poorly.

"Um.. yes? Nice that you have one."

They made it across the street. "Actually, it's for you."

Chi turned to her, a surprised look on her face. "No way! Really?!"

"Yeah! But-"

"Wow, Seren. It's beautiful."

"Er, thanks. It is kind of nice, isn't it?" Seren gloated.

Chi got a closer look at the bike. "Nice? Heck, it's better than ever!" she squeezed the horn so it could honk.

_'It's better than ever!'_ Good thing Xanthe wasn't there to hear that, to fill her ego up more. But at the same time, she did have to give credit where it was due. And Xanthe had to take all of the credit.

"Yeah, but it was actually Xanthe who fixed the bike. I.. have _no_ idea how to fix or put together a bike..I just got it from the dumpster.. but don't worry! Blanca and I disinfected it." she added.

Chi laughed. "I don't know how to put together a bike either. But it was very nice of her to do this. She didn't have to. I'm very thankful. And thank you, Seren for giving my bike another chance. You're a real pal."

"Aw, shucks." Seren laughed at the word 'pal', getting a confused look from Chi. "Shucks?"

"Oh, it's just this bashful, old timey phrase that people say to kinda, decline a compliment."

"Ah, I see. I learned something today." Chi held onto the handlebars.

"I mean, 'aw shucks' has more than one meaning. People also say it when something bad happens. Like if you spill something on the floor, someone might say that. Or if you just got to the grocery store and start looking for your grocery list, only to find out that you left it home, you can say that as well. Oh! But people also use it when something cool is about to happen. Like if someone is about to do some cool tricks on a bike, someone might say "Awwww, shucks! Or you might say it when-" Seren felt herself rambling on.

Chi was just staring at her.

_I am a horrible English teacher..._ Seren tried to change the subject. "Umm, anyway. Enough of that.. Soo, uh, you wanna take it out for a spin? Looks like you really wanna try it out." she nudged Chi with her elbow.__

_ __ _

__

She gave Seren a huge smile. "Definitely! Oh wait.." she checked her watch. The huge smile came back. "Yes! I have plenty of time!" she got on the bike and started pedaling beside Seren. "Wow, it even rides much smoother."

_Yup, good thing Xanthe really isn't here..._

"If you want, you don't have to wait for me. Enjoy your new and improved bike." she offered.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course! That's why I gave you the bike. For you to enjoy it!" Seren gave her a thumbs up.

"Weeeell." she changed the gears on the bike. "If you say so." she said. "I'm just going to ride down this hill, then meet you at the school."

"Sure, no problem."

Chi turned away from her.

"Hey, wait!"

Chi stopped.

"You still have your baseball card?"

Chi looked at her for a split second, before she knew what Seren was getting at. "Yeah, it's somewhere in my bag." She turned around, not taking the back off her back. She fished out the card from one of the zippers and handed it to Seren. She put it in her spokes. "よし！(Yoshi!) Alrighty!" she remembered Chi saying that from before.

The girl laughed. "You're a fast learner."

Seren nodded at the compliment. "I learned from the best.. Well, have a good ride, Chi. See you back at school."

She left Seren's side, peddling towards the top of the hill. She peddled a few more times, then let gravity pull her down the hill.

Seren was so happy, so at ease. She destroyed her bike, but managed to fix her wrong! It was brilliant! Seren found some pep in her step as she strode towards the school.

...  
Chi was going down the hill, her hair flapping wildly in the wind. "やった！(Yatta!) Yeaaah/Wheeeee!/Yippie!!" she raised her arms in the air. "あたしは鳥だ！あたしは飛行機だ！あたしは-(Atashi wa tori da! Atashi wa hikōki da! Atashi wa-) I'm a bird! I'm a plane! I-). She saw the light turn red for the other street and a greenlight turned for the other. Cars were driving in front of her a block up. She pressed the brake, but the bike kept going. "私はすぐにひどく怪我をするつもりです..." (Watashi wa sugu ni hidoku kega o suru tsumoridesu.) "Am about to get hurt very badly..."

.....

"There you are, Seren. I have the-" Xanthe held the brake cable in her hand. "Seren. Where's the bike?" her tone was serious. But then again, just about everything that Xanthe said was rough or serious.

"What do you mean? I gave it to Chi, so-" Seren looked at the brake cable in Xanthe's hand. "so.. she could ride it.. OH NO!" she grabbed her hair.

"Seren, you rockhead!" Xanthe ran passed her, then stopped once she heard a few car horns and a crash.

They looked back at each other. One looking angry and fustrated and the other, worried and berating herself.

......

Seren knocked lightly on the white, plain door. If Chi was sleep, she didn't want to knock too hard, waking her up.

"Come in." she heard her voice from the room.

Seren opened the door slowly, and closed it back. She walked slowly to her friend's? bed. A part of her head was bandaged up, she had a neck brace on, her left arm was in a cast, being held up by a sling above the bed and both of her legs were bandaged up. Seren could also see a few red scratches on her cheek.

"Hey, Chi."

"Hey Seren. Thanks for coming." she gave her a very small smile, not wanting to hurt her face even more.

"Listen. I'm really sorry." she leaned on the bed.

"What do you mean, Seren?"

"Heh, you rhymed, erhm." she coughed, going to her serious mode again. "You know. For the accident."

"But you didn't do anything. It's just something that happened. That's all."

"But I was the one who forgot the brake cable." she frowned. "I forgot them back at the dumpster. Xanthe TOLD me specifically not to give you the bike and I totally forgot!" she face palmed, signing into her hand. "And now you're here."

Chi did a half a shrug with her one shoulder. "But you didn't mean to do that. I've forgotten some things that were very important as well."

"But they never resulted in you or anyone ending up in the hospital." she assumed.

Chi gave her an apologetic look, but didn't say anything.

Seren wanted to focus on something else. "Here. I bought you some chocolates to make it up to you." she laid a box of chocolates on her lap. "

"That's nice of you, Seren. But really. You didn't have to." she tried to pinch and tear the thin plastic off with one hand.

"Here. Let me help you with that." Seren tore the plastic off and opened the top, setting it at the foot of the bed, not realizing that she had hit a lever on the side of the bed. The pulley system raised up and she shrieked as her bad arm was pulled up with it. The beat of the heart monitor increased.

"Oh no! I'm sorry! Here, I got it." Seren pulled the lever she thought she touched up. The bed folded in on her and she screamed, her body bending to an acute angle. "Man! I'm SO sorry!" Seen pulled one lever back up and the other one back down. The pulley system went back down and the bed leveled out. "I'll just uh-"

"NO!" she blurted out, then said in a forced, gentle tone. "Seren, please. You don't have to. Please, just sit down, there." she pointed and Seren followed her finger. "Right, over there."

Seren walked towards a lonely chair at the far side of the room. Seren couldn't help but hear the heart monitor go back to a normal heartbeat. She sat down.

"Good." Chi breathed out.

A few moments of not talking, Seren jumped out of her chair. "Look, Chi. Somehow I'mma make it all up to you." she got up and the sound of the heart monitor started pacing again.

"I don't know how yet, but I'm gonna do it! You'll see!" she ran out, groaning an overly dramatic sigh as she ran out the door. She slammed the door shut and the screw that held up the number 9 on her door, fell off, the number sliding and flipping down to a 6.

Two guys moving a hospital table exited out of a nearby elevator. "Here it is." said one of the guys, looking at the number of Chi's door. "336. Tonsillectomy." He opened the door. "Alright. Let's do it."

The other guy picked up a drill and powered it up.

......

Night fell and Seren was in bed, thinking about all of the things she'd heard people, including Xanthe say about Chi and and she thought about certain events that had already transpired in school, within the two months of meeting her.

_She's a real dork.._

_Yeah, stuff like this always happen to the geeky kids.._

_Of all the teens in the school, Chi's got to be the geekiest.._

Seren sighed.

_They were in the quad, eating. They were sitting on an unstable, wooden bench suspended in the tree. With all of the sits filled up, they decided to make do with sitting on opposite sides to level the bench out. One of Seren's classmates came running up to her. "Seren, come quick! Harold just summoned his first weapon! And it's a gauntlet!"_

___"What?! No way! I've NEVER seen gauntlets in real life!" she jumped up and ran behind the boy, forgetting that she was supplying the weight on the other side of the bench. The board lifted up, allowing Chi to ungracefully fall into the trashcan that was beside her._

......

_"Dumb police!" a random girl dressed in a fake police outfit ran into the biology classroom with a water gun, spraying everyone. "You're dumb!" she was saying to them, laughing. She sprayed the teens in the front row, then sprayed Seren's shirt and her face, much to her dismay. That wasn't the first time the girl done that while the teacher was out the room._

_The random girl sprayed everyone else in the room, including Chi. When she tempted to spray Courtney, the girl flicked her wrists, blowing the water right back at her, the wind also knocking her a few feet and into a table. A crab that was already trying to climb out of a fish tank, had plopped down from the sudden hit from the table. It fell on her lap. The girl looked at the crab, then started laughing. She picked it up. "Hey, anyone want to shake hands with Mr. Crab?" Everyone started backing away, except for Seren. The girl turned to her. "Hey pinky, shake hands with Mr. Kraaaab." she challenged._

_"I'm not afraid of him. Give him here." Seren snatched the crab from her hands. "In fact, I'll get some of his friends too." she picked up four more crabs, putting two on one arm, one on the other and she held the last one._

_"Wow, that's pretty cool, pinky." she said._

_She held her head up. "Psssht, this is nothin-"_

_"Butter fingers!"_

_"Hey!"_

_The girl had hit one of Seren's hands and the crab flew out of her hand, landing on Chi's face. She screamed, panicking. It started snapping at her nose. "あー！痛い!痛い!痛い！痛い!痛い! (A! Itai!) Ah!! Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!!!"_

_The class was laughing at her, except for Seren._

.......

_They were in art class and Seren was making something abstract with lots of glue and paper mache. She picked up the glue bottle, labled Gemtech Glue and carefully spread it across the paper. She set it down, incorrectly and the bottle tipped over. She caught it, the contents just missing her fingers as it fell to the floor. She fixed it back on the table and started folding the paper in front of her._

_Chi was almost finished with her artwork. A drawn picture of the Skytree Tower in Tokyo. She reached into her bag sitting beside her on the floor and picked up her half of granola bar, without looking from the sketch. She bit into it and took two bites before not being able to anymore. She tried to shout, but her mouth couldn't open. Just muffled groaning. Seren looked at her, then the granola bar in her hand that had splattered glue all over it, then she looked at the floor. Both the floor and her and Chi's bag had a bit of glue on them._

_Chi continued to panic. The class started laughing at her as she tried desperately to open her mouth._

...

Seren buried her face in her hands, breathing another sigh into them. She placed her hands back down on the bed. "Chi's NOT a dork." she sat up. "And she deserves her day. And I'm going to give her that day."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who want to know what episodes Seren was watching:
> 
> SpongeBob Squarepants- Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy III.  
&  
One of my favorite shows of all time, lol, Ed Eddn Eddy- One+One=Ed.


	3. Chapter Three

The next day, Seren asked if she could leave even more early than usual to try and catch Chi at her house. They agreed and left twenty minutes earlier. Like the school, Chi's house was not too far away from the hotel.

With trial and error and remembering vaguely where Chi lived and asking questions on where certain streets were located, Seren eventually found her house. Her sisters waited down by the steps as she ran up the porch. She knocked. "I hope she's still here." she said to her sisters. "We did get turned around a bit back there.

Xanthe raised an eyebrow. " 'We'?"

The door opened and Chi stood by the door with her backpack on her other shoulder. The cast in a yellow sling to match their uniform.

Seren raised her hands in the air. "ただいま!" (Tadaima!) Rough translation: "I'm back!/ I'm home!"

Chi gave another one of her gentle smiles. "おかえりなさい, セリーンさん." (Okaeri nasai、Seren san) Welcome back, Seren." Her voice was hoarse.

Seren's expression dropped. Worried. "Chi, what happened to your voice?"

Oh, I don't know. There was some kind of mix up. They took my tonsils out by mistake."

"Oh no! That's terrible." she grimaced.

"Not really. You can pretty much live without them. I just wished they would've left my spleen though." she lifted her shirt to show staples along a red cut near the side of her stomach. She pulled her shirt back down.

"Listen. I just want you to know that I am extremely sorry for everything. The trashcan, the crab, the granola bar."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

Seren ignored the question. "But I'm going to make it up to you. I'm taking you out for one full day, where NOTHING bad happens! One entire day! Just you, me and my sister's having non-stop, full on, action-packed fun!"

"Gee, Seren. That sounds neat!"

"Great! I'll be there to pick you up first thing tomorrow morning." Seren ran down the steps to meet her sisters. She turned back around. "And don't forget to wear your fun clothes!"

Chi shook her head, smiling. "That Seren. She just keeps on giving and giving." she said to herself. She slid her shoes on at the doors, then closed it. "Hey, you guys! Wait up! " she ran down the steps.

................  
~~Le next day~~

Seren gave a few light taps on the screen door. The front door was already opened. A few moments later Chi came from behind the door. "Good Morning, Seren." she looked at Seren, then at each sister. "Xanthe, Nila, Blanca." she waved at them. They each said their good morning's to her as she slid her shoes on and unlocked the screen door. She pulled the front door shut and locked.

"So, ready to have some fun?" asked Seren.

Chi nodded. "Ready."

"Great!" she started pulling something from her front pocket. "The first thing we're gonna do is go to a baseball game." she pulled out two baseball tickets.

"Really?!" she was grinning from ear to ear. She raised her arms in cheer and her cast hit the door.

"Are you okay?" Seren asked.

She cupped her arm to her side. "Yeah, I'm okay. I kinda.. somehow forgot about my arm being in cast." she gave an embarrassed chuckle.

"Ah, okay." Seren continued. "Well, um, it was Xanthe's idea to go to a ball game."

Chi looked at Xanthe and Xanthe gave her a head nod. "Yeah, Seren was blabbering on about how you love baseball games, but never been to one in the States yet. So I figured, hey, why not go to one in Beach City and see how we do it in Delmarva. Also, that Ichiro character is going to be there."

Chi's eyes lit up. "Omgeee, really?!"

Xanthe nodded, jumping down off the banister. "Yup. He's going to be playing these next few games."

"And look!" Seren hopped back into the conversation. She pointed at the passes. "Front. Row. Seats!"

Chi stared at the tickets in her hands.

"Here." Seren handed her the tickets.

She looked up from the tickets. "How did you get these?!"

"Sterling is a HUGE baseball fan. He also knows people." Seren gloated.

"羨ましい (Urayamashii) "I'm jealous."

"Ooookay, folks. If we want to see that first pitch, we should start heading out." said Xanthe.

"We'll get there in no time." said Seren. "Becaaaaaaause.." she inched her way in front of her sisters and Chi. "We're going to run all the way there!" she ran past them.

They watched her run. "She can't be serious." said Blanca.

"It does take Seren to make everything into a game." Nila chuckled.

Seren turned around. "Come on, you slow pokes!" she turned back around, losing her balance and tripping a bit before she got her stride back.

Xanthe gave a side smile. "Eh, it's only a little bit of running, Blanca." said Xanthe. She ran down the stairs. "Unless YOU are the one who's afraid of being a slowpoke."

Blanca rolled her eyes. "I don't fall for taunts, Xanthe..." she walked down the steps. "But..I guess I'll join in just this once." Blanca narrowed her eyes at Xanthe, a smile appearing on her face.

Xanthe bent down to a runner's start, her fingers touching the ground and Blanca just bent her knees slightly, and leaned a bit forward. "Ready." said Xanthe. "Set!" she raised up. Blanca still kept her pose. Then a few breathes later, Xanthe shouted "Go!" and she shot out of her stance, running fast. Blanca was already beside her, not doing as much work as Xanthe was. Blanca turned her head around, that same, smug look from earlier. Xanthe saw her from the corner of her eyes, but ignored her, looking in front of herself again.

"Show offs." Nila scoffed. She started running and Chi followed behind her.

....  
"You know, you don't have to slow down for me, Xanthe. " Blanca teased.

Xanthe tried to pick up the pace, her face in a strain.

Blanca's smug deepen. "I'll be sure to film the first pitch for you." she ran past Xanthe.

Seren was jogging in place, waiting for any of the four to catch up. Blanca ran passed her, nearly knocking her over. Then a few moments later Xanthe ran passed and Seren jumped out of the way. _Yeah, there's no way I'll be able to catch up to them.._

Nila and Chi were running up, Nila a few feet ahead of her. "Ah, now here are my folks." she smiled.

Nila passed her and Chi was coming up fast. Seren started running away to prevent her from getting in front.

Chi was right on her heels. "You can't outrun me!" she shouted. "We both have short legs!"

"Says you!" she panted. "You're going to eat my dust!" she laughed.

Chi picked up her pace and the two were now running side by side. Seren tried to run faster, but she was already getting winded. Chi passed her. "But how-?"

"I used to run track back in Japan." she giggled. "You need to learn how to pace yourself!" she shouted a few feet in front of her.

"Wait, Chi! Look out!" Seren shouted, pointing at the manhole sign.

"Huh?" she turned around just as she took another step. She shrieked, falling into the manhole. She tried to grab a hold of one of the bars of the ladder, but she was going too fast and she didn't have enough body strength to grip any of the bars and hold on. Her bad arm slid and hit every bar as she fell all the way down. She fell down hard on her butt.

"Chi!" Seren yelled from the top. She was about to climb down until a construction worker stopped her. "Hey! What are you doing little girl!"

She was still proceeding to go down the manhole. "My friend fell down there!" _Wait, who said we were friends yet?... Especially with everything that has happened lately..._

"What?!" The construction worker shooed her off the ladder, turned on his headlamp and started climbing down.

He climbed a few feet down, then looked underneath him. His headlamp showed a figure down at the very bottom. "Hello?" he said. The figure looked up, raising her hand up to shield the light from her eyes.

"Don't worry, I'm coming down."

Chi backed away from the ladder to give the guy some room.

He stepped down and adjusted the brightness on his headlamp to lesson the brightness.

"Are you hurt?" he asked her. He noticed her cast. "How's your arm?"

"No, I'm okay... And I think the cast pretty much cushioned everything."

"Alright, that's good to hear." he told her. "But I think we should still get you checked out just in case." he picked her up in a bridal carry.

"Wait, but how are you going to climb all the way up th-"

He started climbing with another pair of arms. _So he's a fusion!?_ His headlamp had shone so bright in her face, she couldn't see him properly. Even when he dimmed it down.

....

When they got to the surface, Seren was pacing back and forth, worried. She stopped in her tracks and turned to them. "Chi! Are you okay?" she ran up to her. "Oh, I'm sooo so sorry. I should've warned you quicker!"

"It's okay, Seren."

The construction worker set her down gently on the ground. "Just wait here, ma'am. I'll quickly get you someone who'll give you a proper look over."

"No, that's okay, really. I don't need that.. I'll be fine."

"Are you sure? That was a pretty bad fall. And your arm." he gestured at her cast with his top, right hand.

She nodded. "Yes sir. I'm sure."

"Well, okay.." he hesitated before finally tipping his hat with the same hand and walking away.

Seren turned to her. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, Seren." she tried to reassured her. "I've fallen many times before. I'm fine."

Seren didn't buy it. A sad expression on her face.

"Come on. Let's go." she said softly. "Your sisters are probably wondering where we are."

"Yeah.. Yeah you're right." Seren was still a bit down.

............

Two outs. One person at 1st base. Another at 2nd. Tie game. Bottom of the twelfth. Ichiro was now at the bat. One strike. Two fowls. The pitcher was standing with the ball in his hands, getting ready to pitch the ball again. Suddenly, a mound visit was called. 30 seconds ticking on the clock. Fans of the home team booed as the opposing team's pitching coach ran up to the mound to talk to the pitcher.

"Peanuts! Cracker jack! Lemonade!" shouted a vendor, lugging around a case that was held up by shoulder straps.

Xanthe called him over. She showed the vendor the season pass voucher and he opened the case for her. She pointed at the box of cracker jack and he handed it to her.

Blanca was sitting next to her. She was wearing the baseball park's headset (which came with the seasoned tickets). She chuckled at something the commentator said on the radio as she wrote down the proper marks on the score sheet. "Xanthe, you're really missing out on all this juicy commentary." she said.

Xanthe popped open the box. "Eh, I don't care for all that chit chat. It's better and more effective if I simply just _watch_ the game." she threw a few kernels in her mouth.

The umpire ran up to the mound to break up the talk. The pitching coach ran back to the dugout as the umpire ran back to home base. The game resumed and the fans started cheering. "Go Ichiroさん！行け! (Ike!) "Go!"" Chi shouted amongst the rest of the screaming fans. A ball was thrown and Ichiro swung. The ball was hit. The first baseman jumped up and the ball grassed pass his mit. Ichiro ran as another player ran for the ball. He slid to first base. Safe.

Bases loaded. Fans cheered and the opposing team booed.

"See, now I just saw the pitcher try to pull a dirty trick and throw that curve ball a certain way, but Ichiro STILL managed to get a single!" she poured some cracker jack in her hand. "And _I_ didn't _need_ an announcer to tell me that."

Blanca wrote down something on her score card, listening to the commentary of the two radio personals before replying back to Xanthe. "They don't just state what happens in the game. They talk about other interesting facts and tidbits about the players and baseball facts and trivia." said Blanca. "They also have a lot of dry humor and zingers and puns that I find pretty creative."

"Exactly. Unimportant chatter." Xanthe plucked a kernel from her teeth. "I rather just watch the players, well, play. That's the whole idea of going to a game after all. Not.. scoring and listening to the radio. You can do that at home."

Blanca shook her head. A side smile on her face. "To each their on, Xanthe. To each their own."

Nila was holding up an orange foam finger while she, Seren and Chi cheered on with the crowd. "Go team go!" she shouted.

"You got this, Jonesy!" Seren jumped up.

Chi clapped along with the fans. "Woooooo!!! Let's go, Adams!!"

Just as the pitcher was about to get ready to throw the ball a pitching change was called. The crowd started booing as the manager ran up to the pitcher. While they conversed, another pitcher was in the ballpen getting ready.

Five minutes of watching baseball facts on the Jumbo tron and the game was ready to resume. The next pitcher ran up to the mound as the previous one went to the dugout with the manager.

The crowd cheered louder as the pitcher started winding up for the pitch. Jonesy Adams went into his stance, with the bat at an angle.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Xanthe said, tensed.

The ball was pitched and there was a loud crack as Jonesy Adams hit the ball. The crowd roared and stood up as the ball soared through the sky.

"Wow! What a hit." said Xanthe, watching the ball.

_"Aaaaand it's going, GOing, GOING! Folks, looks like this ball is going south_field_ for the winter!"_ Blanca chuckled at the commentator.

The ball kept going. Towards them.

Nila put the foam finger down and looked at Seren and Chi" Looks like it's headed our way!"

The ball was coming towards them.

"It's coming towards us!" Seren shouted. "Chi, you try to get it." she offered.

"But I'm horrible at catching.. " Chi said as Seren slid the mit on her hand.

"You can always try. Don't worry. You got this. Quick! It's coming!"

Chi raised her hand as she tried to keep her eye on the ball. The sun's rays shone in her eyes and she couldn't tell where the ball was going to land exactly. It hit her in the face and she held her face, shouting into her hand. Her eyes started to water from the nose injury.

Ooooo's and Uh oh's echoed amongst the crowd.

"AH! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!! Chi, are you okay?! Aw man, I should've never forced you to catch that ball. I just wanted you to be able to have your first home run ball! Aw man, aw man. Let me see your face." Chi let go of her face slowly. Seren sucked her teeth. "Got your nose pretty bad. Here, let's get you cleaned up." she took some napkins from her pocket and held her bloody nose.

Blanca and Xanthe ran over to them, being mindful of not stepping on stepping on anyone's feet as they ran down the row.

"Are you okay?" they heard Nila ask Chi.

"Nnhhnn." she said nasally.

"Dag, Chi. You were SO close to catching that ball! You had it! You practically had it!" Xanthe was still shocked, waving the empty box of cracker jack.

Nila cut her eye at Xanthe.

_"Man, that ball sure packed a wallop, aye Jerry?" said the commentator. "I wonder where that ball went?"_

_"Her_ nose _knows." said his coworker._

_The two guys started laughing._

Blanca turned around and stifled a laugh, making one sharp snort. Xanthe and Nila looked at her.

"Nnngh! Seren, my blood is getting all over your hand." she said nasally, grabbing for Seren's hand.

Seren kept her hand on her nose. "I don't care.. I was the one who did this to you.."

"No you didn't."

Seren heard the crowd oooooo and half of the crowd start chuckling. She turned and saw the Jumbo tron. The instant reply of what happened was playing on the screen. The video was in slow motion. The camera getting a perfect angle of the ball hitting Chi right in the middle of her face. It also captured the horrified look of Nila and Seren and the surprised look on Xanthe as she did a spit take of her food, looking at Chi, her chin dropping in surprise.

Seren looked away as a third replay started to play. "No, it was me! It's all my fault. AGAIN."

"I just couldn't get the ball, Seren. That's my fault."

Seren took one more spare napkin and dabbed at Chi's eyes before adding the napkin to the ones on her nose.

Two paramedics finally came pass with their medical equipment.

"Alrighty, we're here now." said one of them, kneeling down in front of Chi and opening the kit. He put on his gloves. "I got it." he told Seren as she moved her hand away for him to hold the napkin.

Seren scooted away both to give the guy some more room and to distance herself from Chi. She looked at her sisters from the side but didn't say anything.

"You know it's not really your fault." Nila spoke up.

"It feels like it is.. I was the one to pressure her into grabbing for that baseball."

"Like she said, Seren. She just didn't catch it." said Xanthe. "Heck, she just can't catch. Now someone like me" Xanthe raised her arm to show off a muscle. "would've easily-"

"But, she's not like you." Nila cut her off.

Xanthe narrowed her eyes at her as she lowered her arm back down.

Seren sighed. "Still.. now she's injured for the _second_ time today.."

Nila put her hand on her knee. "Don't worry, Seren. We still have the rest of the day to make this the best day ever for her."

Seren thought about it, then a small smile came to her face. "Yeah, you're right." she said. "So, what's next on our list?" she asked her sisters.

"How about something simple and relaxing? Like, feeding the ducks at the park?" Blanca suggested.

"Blanca, that's a great idea! Nothing can be more simple and relaxing than that!" said Seren.

_"Hey, Tom. Do you think they'll let me crop and get a photo blow up of the part where she gets hit? I'm thinking I would hang it up like a sign in the nosebleeds section."_

Blanca looked at Chi who was now holding her own nose. She turned away to stifle another laugh.


	4. Chapter Four

Chi threw some more bread crumbs out onto the grass. A few ducks and a goose started to nibble and peck at the food.

"So, did you ever do this back when you were in Japan?" Seren grabbed a piece of bread from the bag that she was holding and broke it apart and threw the pieces in to different areas. More ducks and geese started waddling in. They screeched and honked as they fought for dominance over the food. Some of them flapping their wings

Chi nodded her head. "Yeah." she said nostalgically. "My parents and I did it all the time." Seren opened the bag for her and she pulled out a slice of bread. She pit it in her stationary hand and used the other one to rip up the bread. "We would go to actual duck parks or to certain gardens to feed them." she sprinkled the pieces of bread on the ground. "And sometimes we would stay out until the sun started setting and we would end up watching the sun set.. It was beautiful."

Seren looked at her friend. Her eyes looked a bit misty. "Do you.. ever miss your life back home in Taito?"

She looked at Seren. She had a sad expression on her face. "Mm, sometimes." she said. "I mean, of course when I first moved here, I was extremely homesick." she started idly plucking at nothing in particular on her cast. "Beach City was just a name to me. Nothing more than that.. And I figured I would just go there, do what I had to do and graduate and possibly go back to Japan, never to come back..but, when I actually got here and as the months went on, I finally saw it for what it truly was and I learned to love a lot of the stuff here." she said softly. "It didn't take me too long to see the beauty of another country half way around the world."

Seren was reaching in the bag, but stopped halfway. For some reason, she couldn't help but be drawn to what she was saying. "Wooww.." Seren breathed out. "That sounds like poetry."

Chi laughed. "Poetry? Oh no, no, no. I don't know how to write or recite poetry." then she thought. "Apart from the ones I had to memorize in school when I was still in Japan." the last bit of giggles escaped out her mouth.

"No way?! Japanese poems?! You definitely have to let me here some if them some time." she held the bag out for Chi again. She took one slice out and Seren took out two slices.

Chi smiled. "Maybe I can even teach it to you."

"That would be so cool!" Seren squealed.

The ducks honked at them, waiting for more food.

"Whoops! Guess we're too slow for them." Seren chuckled. She took another slice out and broke it up before throwing it on the ground. The ducks quickly waddled towards the pieces.

"I think the ducks in Japan are a bit more patient." Chi chuckled alongside her. She took another piece and broke them up delicately and threw the pieces in three different areas.

...

"This is pretty nice, isn't it Xanthe?" Nila threw a few pieces of bread out into the water. A few ducks swam to it, quickly snapping at the soggy pieces.

"Eh, if by 'nice' you mean, absolutely boring, then yes." Xanthe was sitting on the grass, with her knees up. One hand was holding her head up as she slowly broke apart the slice of bread with one hand. She threw the last pieces of bread anywhere and her other hand joined in to hold her head up. She had a bored expression on her face. Two geese came in to gobble the pieces up.

"Oh, come on, Xanthe. It's not boring. It's very relaxing."

"And what is relaxing but a step away from boredom?" she sighed.

Two ducks and a geese started to waddle up to Xanthe, squawking at her.

"Hey! Hey! I don't have any more food! Get away!" she got up.

Nila laughed and threw some pieces on the ground and in the water so the ducks would venture over to the food. They all waddled away from Xanthe.

"Well they don't seem bored at all." she laughed.

Xanthe stuffed her hands in her pocket. "Well, good on them." she turned around. "Well, since I'm all out of morsels, I guess I'll just sit on the bench or, I don't know.. climb one of these trees or something to pass the time until everyone's finished." she started walking away only to step in something fowl. "Uhhhhg!!!" she picked her leg up, to see the bottom of her shoe, then she glared at the ducks walking about.

Nila laughed. "It's not their fault! You have to watch where you're going."

Xanthe looked at Nila."THIS is another reason I don't like feeding ducks.."

"Well, some of them are geese."

Xanthe turned her head and looked at her for a few moments. A look of 'Really doe?'

Nila snorted.

Xanthe turned around and started walking towards the water. "Uhg, ducks, geese, whatever smart Alec." She took her shoe and dipped the bottom of her it in. She lifted it back up and wiped her shoe on the ground, then dipped her shoe back in the water again swishing it around before wiping her shoe on another part of the ground again. She did it a third time. "There, I think majority of it is off." Xanthe carefully walked over to the sidewalk. Nila was still chuckling.

Xanthe walked over to one of the benches where Blanca was hovering just a few yards behind the bench, she was looking down at something.

Out of curiosity ..And boredom, Xanthe decided to check out what Blanca was up to. She tried to walk softly on the grass, just in case she was actually interrupting something important. Blanca turned around. "Try to walk a bit slower, Xanthe. I don't want you to scare them."

There were two swans and their four cygnets.

"I didn't know there were swans here." Xanthe whispered.

"I didn't either." She picked up one slice of bread and pulled it in half equally. She then broke apart the two pieces in six pieces. She threw the twelve pieces around the graceful birds. The birds startling pecking at the food. "Such pure, elegant looking birds." she whispered.

"Mm... sure? I mean, they're all just birds so.."

"No, they're not just any birds. These are _swans_.Graceful, beautiful. She took another slice of bread out and cut it up the same way.

"Well, if you like them so much, why don't you levitate back down to them?" she challenged.

"Why, so I can scare them off?" the she made a face. "Or step in their waste like you did a few moments ago?"

Xanthe crossed her arms. "Just that ONE time."

"Well _I_ stepped in them zero times.

"Excuuuuuse me. Not ALL of us has the gift of levitation here." Xanthe rolled her eyes.

Blanca nodded, grabbing another slice of bread from the bag. Then she turned to her. "Then come, my sister. Let me show you." she was trying to sound mysterious as she held her hand out for Xanthe.

"Neh, I'm fine. Watching ducks and _geese_ waddle about isn't my idea of 'fun'."

"Suit yourself." Blanca took another piece of bread out the bag.

Xanthe walked away and sat on the bench.

...

"Uh oh. Last piece." said Seren. "You want it?"

"Sure, thanks." Chi grabbed the slice from the bag. She split it in two, handing Seren the other half.

"Thanks." Seren smiled.

They broke apart their halves and three them on the ground. The ducks didn't waste ant time gobbling it up the rest of the food. Chi couldn't help but laugh at the eager little ducks.

"Welp, now that that's done." Seren dusted the crumbs off her hands. "How about we set off to do something else?"

"Sounds great to me!" Chi exclaimed.

They walked over towards Nila. "Hey Nila. Almost done?" Seren asked.

"Yup." she shook the bag, letting the rest of the crumbs fall into the water.

"Great! And I think Blanca's done too." she pointed at Blanca who was now laying down, still levitating, as she watched the swans preen their wings.

"And it's your turn, Nila. What do you think we should do next?" Seren asked her.

The ducks and the geese started honking at them. The trio ignored them.

"Hmmm.." she thought, before giving them a huge smile. "How about we go on one of those boats!" she suggested.

"Like a ship?!" Chi tried to keep the worry out of her voice.

"No, like one of those small boats that you paddle."

"Oh." she gave a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, it _has_ been a pretty long time since we've been on one of those. Sounds like a great idea! What do you think, Chi?" said Seren.

"Yeah! Let's go! Ow!" a bird bit her ankle. She turned around, backing away from it. It tried to bite her ankle again and she moved out of the way. "I think it's mad that we ran out of food." More birds came squawking towards her. "I think they all are." she said.

Nila tried to shoo them away, but when she shooed one part away, the birds on the opposite end would run up.

The first duck from before flew towards Chi and Seren jumped in front of her, narrowing her eyes as she thought hard.

"What are you doing?" Chi asked.

Seren didn't answer her.. Too focused._Come on, where are you shield?.._ Nothing happened. "Aw, come on!"

The duck swooped down passed Seren and started pecking the top of Chi's head. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Get it off! Get it off!" Seren tried to wave the bird away.

Nila tried to go over to them, but the birds were blocking her way and squeaking at her whenever they would get too close.

Two more ducks started pecking at her. "Ow! OW! Owch!! There's more of them now!"

"Come on, let's get out of here!" Seren grabbed her arm and ran towards the sidewalk. The three ducks were still flying around and pecking her head.

Nila finally managed to get around the birds.

Xanthe saw them running over. She got up. "What happened now?!"

"I don't know! One minute the ducks were fine and then out of nowhere, they just started attacking her!" said Seren. She hit one bird and it flew away and Nila managed to get the second one. The main one from before was still attacking Chi.

Blanca saw all the commotion and put a bubble around the swans and their cygnets. She levitated back down by the others.

Seren went for the last duck again and this time, the bird started going for her. "Ah! It, it has ME!" she waved her hands.

Blanca swatted the bird, with the back of her hand. It flew back over and squawked at her before pecking Seren again.

Xanthe was running up, her hands held her out, ready to catch the bird. It flew towards her and tried to peck her. She kept dodging the pecks and fanning her hands.

"What is with that bird!?" Blanca ran over Xanthe and the bird turned and went for her. She lifted her fist up, flames around it. "Do you want to be roasted duck?" she threatened. The bird saw the bright colors of the flame and flew away from her, flying towards Nila. She screamed, trying to pull the bird out of her hair. She smacked it and the bird flew up, then flew back down, heading towards Xanthe. "That's IT! I had it with this bird. She raised her arm and shot out a single lightning bolt up towards the sky. The bird gave an alarmed squawk before flapping away.

"Xanthe" said Nila.

"What? It's not like I shocked it. All I did was scare it away.. I wouldn't _really_ hurt them." she said. "No matter how annoying they are.."

"Let's just hurry and get out of here before it comes back!" Seren was tugging on Xanthe's arm.

"Agreed." Nila grimaced.

The group started walking and Blanca stopped and turned back. They stopped and saw her unbubble the swans and turn back to the group. They left out the park immediately.


	5. Chapter Five

"So, which one do you want to ride in?" Seren asked Chi.

"Hmmmm..."Chi looked at the rows of boats in front of her. "Any of them would do, actually."

"Really? Come oooon. We can have ANY boat out here! That red rascar one looks cool, the green on here, the striped on over there." she pointed at the boats.

"Mmm, maybe.."

"Yeeeees~?" Seren wiggled her eyebrows.

Chi laughed. "Maybe.. the purple one?" she pointed at the boat. "I'm probably being a bit bias though." she casually opened the palm of her hand, showing her purple gem. "But I pick that one." she smiled.

"Then purple it is!" Seren started pushing the boat forward going between the row of boats in front of her.

"Let me help you with that." Chi was about to touch the boat, but Seren stopped her. "No! Your arm! Don't worry, I got this." she huffed as she continued to push the non heavy boat.

By the time they got to the water, Seren was out of breath, leaning on the boat.

"You sure you don't want to take a break?" Chi asked her.

"What?" she breathed out. "Pssshhtt, I'm" another deep breath. "why I'm as healthy as a horse." she got up and walked in the water, getting inside of the boat. She pat the seat beside her.

Chi rolled up her pants before she walked in the shallow waters. She tripped in and Seren caught her by the good arm. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." she steadied herself and sat down.

Seren tipped her imaginary hat. "Bon Voyage." she said in a deep voice.

"Umm, yes? 行きましょ! (Ikimashou!) "Let's go!"" she threw one hand up in the air.

"Yes! Let's!" Seren cheered. "...Whatever that means." she started paddling and Chi joined her.

The two paddled only bit a few feet from the shore. "Oh, cool. You can see a pretty good view of the skyline from here." she turned her head. "Whoa! And look at that sunset!" she pointed front of them.

Chi gawked at the mixture of orange, pink and yellow along the horizon. The sun, a beautiful, bright orange color just above the horizon. The hues from the sky and the elegant shiny buildings shimmered off of the water. "Wow." she said. "Stunning."

Seren waited for a few moments for Chi to take in everything before saying anything else. "..So, where would you like to go? We can join everyone out there." she pointed at a huge group of people very far, far away from them out in the water. "Or we could peddle alongside here, by the dock or anything else! Your choice."

Chi looked at the sand, then at the dock. "I think staying close to the dock would be a bit safer."

"Alrighty." said Seren. "Let's just peddle along the shoreline." she smiled.

The duo continued at a steady pace up and down the shoreline while her sisters had their own kind of fun.

Blanca had kicked her legs up on the front of the boat and was leaning back with her arms behind her head and her eyes closed. She was using her water pathekienis to move the water alongside the boat. Drifting along peacefully. "I won! Ha! You're out of your element!" she heard Xanthe gloat from a few feet away. She cracked open an eye to see what she was doing.

Xanthe was passed by two buoys. She had raced Nila and had won the race. She was out of breath while Xanthe was literally riding circles around her, hands clamped together as she shook them in the air in triumph.

Nila finally caught her breath, giving Xanthe a mischievous look. "No, young grasshopper. It is _you_ who is not in your element. _I_ am in mine"

"Nila, what are you-" she was about to ask. Then she immediately knew what she meant. She looked down at the water, then back up at Nila. "Don't you dare."

Nila raised both of her hands, her palms open and the water turned into a spiral. Xanthe held on, her teeth and every other part of her muscle clenched as she clung onto the boat.

Blanca just watched on, not thinking about helping Xanthe out as she spun around and around in the whirlpool. Nila doing her little maniacal laugh as she continued to swirl the water rapidly around Xanthe's boat.

A few more rapid spins later and Xanthe decided that that was enough. She climbed to the edge of the boat and tried to wait for the right time to jump. Everything looked the same. Just a blurred mixture of blues from the sky and the water and faint colors from the people and the boats. She stepped one foot on the edge and jumped, hoping that she wouldn't crash into anyone.. Before she knew it, by the time she jumped off, she was already hurdling towards Blanca."Whoa! Look out!" Xanthe warned her, her arms up to block her face.

Blanca looked unphased by it. With a flick of her wrist, a white bubble formed around her and the boat.

_THWAMP!!_ She watched as Xanthe smacked into the bubble. She started slowly sliding down and fell into the water. Xanthe immediately came back up, spitting some of the water out. "You know, you could've just caught me! Instead of just throwing up a forcefield hard as cement!"

Blanca shrugged. "Involuntary action.." She shrugged again. "Fight or flight.." she said. "You see something randomly flying at you, you want to dodge it.. or in this case, block it." Then a beat later. "Also, correction. My forcefields are harder than cement."

Xanthe gave an exasperated sigh, still treading the water.

Nila peddled over, belly up in laughter. "Aw man. That looked like it really hurt." Xanthe swam to her boat and she helped her into it.

"Pfft, neh. It'll take MORE than a simple bump to do ME any harm."

"Oh, of course. How could I have forgotten?" Nila joked.

"Well I'll forgive you, but just this once." Xanthe joked back.

"Riiiiiight." said Nila. "So anyway, you wanna race again? I want to use my water powers this time."

Xanthe's face contorted into a smug like no other. "Do you really think that _you_ can manipulate water faster than _I_ can peddle!?" she jumped out the boat and swam towards hers. "Oh, you're on, BIG time!" she climbed into the boat. She peddled towards Nila. "Okay, so let's choose another finish line. This time we're going to the furthest one to that dark orange and white buoy ALL the way over there. We'll do three laps around it and we have to go around these buoys too." Xanthe pointed back at the ones that they had passed earlier. "And you can only use the water to aid you into so-called "increasing" your speed so you say.. You CAN'T sabatoge the opposing opponent, such as whirlpools and the like." she gave her a one sided glare.

Nila faltered a bit. "Pffft, what? I wasn't going to do that." she tried to play coy. 

"Mhmm, mhmm, sure you weren't. Anyway, we can start behind these buoys and-" 

Blanca closed her eyes, going back to drifting around and relaxing in the water. 

....... 

They were reaching the dock again, marking the 4th time that they passed it.They were halfway to the end of the "out-of-bound" buoys much further up ahead. 

Seren and Chi were caught up in their jokes, laughing and gawfawing away. 

Chi tried to hold in her laughter. "Okay, okay." she began. "Have you heard this one before? Why don't." she started chuckling again. She tried to stifle a laugh. "Why don't." she laughed again, which made Seren start laughing without hearing the joke. "Okay, okay, fewwwwf." she took a chuckling deep breath. "Okay, serious now. Why." she chortled. "Don't Hawaiians go to the dentist?" 

"Hmm, I've never heard of this one.. Why?" 

She started laughing again. "Because they have good teeth!" she burst into more laughter. 

Seren gave her a sensible chuckle, though she didn't quite get it. 

Chi's laughter finally started to die down. "Do you.. get it?" 

"Um.. not..Really..?" 

"Hm.. Maybe it doesn't translate well." 

"So it was a Japanese joke? No wonder I've never heard of it." 

"Yeah." she said. "It's a pretty hilarious one. But I guess it only works in Japanese. It's a play on homonyms." 

"Well, I appreciate the effort in trying to tell me a Japanese joke." 

There was a sound of a snap by their feet. 

Chi turned to Seren. "Did you hear that?" 

She shook her head. "Hear what?" 

"I thought I heard a noise." 

Seren started looking around. "I don't know what it could've been. Everything looks okay to me." 

"Yeah, maybe it was from the buoys or the dock." 

They continued their peddling towards the buoys. 

"Oh! Here's a good one." said Seren. "What did the beach, no, no wait.. That's wrong.. What did the ocean." she corrected herself. "say to the beach?" 

Chi thought about it. "Umm.. it _shore_ is nice to meet you?" she guessed. 

"Oh, that was a pretty good guess. But nope." 

Chi thought some more. "Mmmm.. can't think of anything else." 

"You give up?" 

"Yeah. What did it say?" 

"Nothing, it just waved." Seren started waving her hand. 

"Ah! I get it! Like the waves in the ocean! But it's also an acknowledgement gesture!" she started laughing. 

"Yeah" Seren laughed at how she actually explained the joke. "I just thought the joke would be very fitting, since we're out relaxing on the water." 

"Yeah, well that was a pretty good one." she chuckled. 

They were getting closer to the "out-of-bound" buoys. 

"Okay, I think it's time to turn around to the other side." said Seren. 

They started to turn the boat until something snapped underneath it. "What was that?!" Chi looked down. "I don't know!" said Seren. They peddled, but the boat wasn't going anywhere. 

"The peddles aren't doing anything." Chi panicked. 

"Yeah, mine aren't doing anything either. And I heard that snapping noise as well! Was that the noise you were talking about earlier?!" 

"Yes!" 

"Okay, let's not panick here. We can just swim back." 

The boat started to bank left on it's side, towards the buoys. 

"I can't swim." 

"WHAT?!! Oop!" she covered her mouth. "Sorry, I didn't mean to shout so loud.. Okay, no worries. I'll just paddle us back to the shore." 

"It's too dangerous!" 

Seren stepped on the edge of the boat. "It's not dangerous." she stopped. "Or.. it shouldn't be? The water shouldn't be that deep." 

The boat continued it's journey, now pass the buoys. 

"But the current seems to be getting stronger, Seren." 

"I'll be fine. Besides, I have to try to do something. Wait." she thought. "Why didn't I just-? Blanca!.. Nila!.. Xanthe!" she shouted out. They didn't hear her, too far away and her voice was muddled by the noise of everyone else out in the water. They both shouted their names. Nothing. 

"Yeah, looks like we have to stick to plan B." she jumped into the water and started swimming towards the boat, trying to push it against the current. The boat didn't move, the current getting stronger. She tried to push the boat at different angles. To the left, to the right, at the front of the boat. "Yeah.. it's not budging.." Seren panted. 

"What are we going to do now?!" 

A horn was blown from the dock. They didn't pay attention to it, too focused on figuring out what to do next to get themselves back to the shore. 

"Hmm..Maybe this current isn't a bad thing. Maybe it's taking us to another part of the beach!" 

"I.. doubt that.. But, I guess we kinda have no choice." 

"Don't you worry. We should be fine." Seren gave her a small smile. She smiled nervously back. 

The current grew stronger. Choppy waters. They were far away from the out-of-bounds buoys. Up ahead, Seren could see some _steam? Mist?_ up ahead. "Hey, I think I see something up ahead." she said.

The boat rocked as it was pulled against the choppy water. Chi fell back. "Are you okay?!" Seren shouted over the current. Some water got in her mouth. She choked. 

Chi got up slowly, her good arm pushing her up. "Yeah, but.. I really don't feel so good." she burped. She looked pale. 

"Oh no.." she muttered, worried. "Don't worry! I'll, I'll try to doggy paddle us a bit faster towards the current! The faster we get out of the current, the faster we'll be out in the calm waters." Seren was sure of that logic. She swam with the boat, pushing it towards the current. "See?" she tried to reassure Chi. "Doggy paddle, forward." she continued to push the boat along the choppy current. The sound of rushing water up ahead. Chi swallowed. "I..Think that's a .. Waterfall Seren!" she burped again. 

"A what?!" 

A different horn was blown from down below. 

They were only a mere few feet away from the top of the waterfall. "Oh gosh! Wait! Doggy paddle, reverse!" she tried to push the boat back. "Reverse!" 

They screamed as the current pulled them into a small waterfall, falling a few yards down. Within a few seconds of the drop, Chi found herself under water. Both the boat and Seren gone. She held her breath as she flailed around, trying to swim up to the surface. 

Seren popped her head out, coughing. "Chi!?" she looked around. "Chi!" she dove down, and looked around. Chi was falling slowly to the bottom, still trying to swim. Seren swam up to her. She grabbed her and slowly swam themselves up to the surface. The two both gasping for air. Three people in uniform was swimming towards them. A medium sized ship trudging up beside them. "Stay there!" said one of them. "Let us come to you!"

Seren thought she saw something else fall down the waterfall from the corner of her eye. More than once.

The man that spoke to them pulled Chi up into his arms. And the second one did the same to Seren. The back up third one, stayed close by, just in case anything were to happen. 

A blue figure poppedbher head out the water, right in front of the guy, scaring him. "Seren, are you okay?!" 

Seren was being carried into the boat. "Yeah, I'm fine, Nila." 

Then another yellow figure popped her head from the surface, scaring the guy and making the guy look around underneath him to make sure if anyone else were to come. Blanca levitated beside him. "Seren, what were you thinking going down that waterfall?!!" she scared him.

Xanthe looked at Chi, unconscious. "Especially with her?! You know she wouldn't had been able to withstand it!" 

"I wasn't thinking about doing that!! The peddles broke on the boat and we just got carried away by the current!! 

Xanthe sighed. "Of course you two would pick out the bad boat." she shook her head. 

With the two on board, the third guy walked aboard the ship, staring behind him cautiously at the three mysterious girls. They gave him some room before entering the ship as well. 

"Waterfalls are dangerous.. But I must admit, they are quite striking." Blanca breathed out. 

"Yeah.. well I might just stay away from them for a little while.." said Seren. 

As the boat took them to shore, Seren got an idea for what she would like to do next. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who are learning Japanese, the joke Chi was trying to directly translate from was this:
> 
> とうしてハワイ人は歯医者に全然行かないの？
> 
> 歯はいいから！


	6. Chapter six

After filling out a few accident papers and talking to those who worked the dock, the look-outs/life guards on duty and the three firefighters, Seren and a now conscious Chi were given the OK to leave.

"Chi, I knoooow you're tired of hearing this, but, I'm so, so sorry." Seren apologized.

"It was an old boat. What happened had nothing to do with you."

"Mmm.." Seren didn't believe her.

"So." Chi tried to cheer her up. "What's next on the list?" she smiled at Seren.

Seren perked up a bit. "Well.. that boat did give me an idea."

"Really? What idea?"

"NOPE! This one's a surprise." Seren cheesed. "So you'll have to keep your eyes closed until we get there. I'll guide you."

Chi looked a bit uneasy, but she nodded her head. "This is going to be.. Interesting. But I trust you." she said. "So, I just.. close my eyes." she closed them.

"Yup." said Seren. "And now I just, guide you. Hmm, you're in the wrong direction. Turn right. Turn right some moooooore, there! Okay, now we're going to walk slowly."

"I have a feeling that Seren is going to mess up and end up hurting her. Like she's going to say left, when she really meant right and Chi's going to walk right into a tree. You know, like in a cartoon." Xanthe said to Nila.

Seren looked back. "Pssshht, Xanthe. I got this, okay?" she focused back on Chi. "Okay, now stop here. Now you're going to turn, no, the other wayyyy and there, right there. Okay, we're like two blocks away from it. Now we're going to head straight."

Chi started walking and Seren thought she heard something growling. "Chi, was that you? Are you hungry?" she asked.

Chi kept her eyes closed. She shrugged. "Just a little?" she lied. "I hadn't eaten since breakfast."

"But that was hours upon hours upon hours ago!" Seren shouted.

"Guess I was kinda hoping that one if you would get hungry and bring it up."

"But..We don't really _get_ hungry. We just kinda eat when we want." said Seren. On the inside, she was berating herself that she hadn't taken Chi being part human into consideration.. _How could she dare forget about Chi's needs?_ "You can open your eyes now, Chi. Let's grab a bite to eat before your surprise"

......

There was a small hot dog and fry stand not too far from where they were.

Nila and Xanthe had opted out for getting ice cream instead.

"Two chili cheese fries, please. One with extra chili and the other, extra cheese." Seren ordered.

"And you?" The guy asked Blanca.

Blanca waved a hand. "No, nothing for me, thank you."

The guy looked offended, but Blanca didn't bother to tell him why she didn't want anything. Had nothing to do with him.

The guy made their fries and handed it to them.

They said their thank you's and started walking away.

"Now we can finally eat!" said Seren. She looked at their containers and the lack of eating utensils. "I mean, we don't have forks, but we can use our hands. I'm not gonna juuuudge."

"Nnnn, I rather have a fork, honestly.. Our hands are pretty germy from being outside all day. And who knows what was in that water from earlier." Chi walked back to get her and Seren a fork.. and some napkins. Seren and Blanca followed her back. She handed Seren her fork. "Thanks" said Seren, her mouth already filled with fries before getting the fork.

Chi started eating her food. "Wow, this is really good." She picked up a couple of French fries with her fork.

"Yeah, it is pretty good." Seren turned to Blanca. "But definitely not as good as Blanca's cooking."

"You know, you flatter me, Seren." said Blanca.

They heard some choking noises beside them. They turned to see Chi holding her throat, trying to cough out the food.

"She's choking!" Seren threw her food on the ground and ran towards her, patting her back, hard. She winced at the impact, still choking.

"Seren, that's not how you do it. Move." Seren moved out of her way and Blanca wrapped her arms around Chi to perform the the Heimlich Remover. Chi coughed out the piece of fry. She started panting for air.

"Are you okay?" Seren asked her.

"Yeah.." Chi said, rubbing her throat. "Yeah, I'm fine now." she looked at both of their thrown food on the ground. "Kinda wished I didn't throw my food down though.. but I panicked."

Seren sighed, looking at her fries. "Wish I hadn't thrown mine either."

Xanthe and Nila came back, now eating the cones of their ice cream. Xanthe looked at Chi holding her throat, the distraught look on Chi and her sister's face and the thrown food on the ground. "Wow, the food was that bad?" she asked. "Told you two that ice cream was the better option." she finished her cone.

"There was, kind of an accident involving the food." was all Seren said, not explaining it thoroughly.

"Did you want to get something else?" Nila offered.

Seren was about to say yes, when Chi spoke up first, "No, I'm okay. I don't want to waste your money. Besides, there's a long line now. We can just move down the list." she put on an encouraging smile. "I'm still extremely curious with where we were going earlier." she looked at Seren.

Seren made a mental note to come back one day to get some more of the delicious fries.. "Oh, yeah! Right. The surprise. Uhmm.." Seren looked around. "Towards our left-Oh wait! Is that one of those observatory thingies?!"

A few people were taking turns and putting their change in the machine, turning them left and right, getting better views of the area.

"Ooooo, Chi! You wanna go there first, then head back to the surprise?"

"Sure." she smiled.

......

Seren and Chi were finally up next, the little girl finally finished with it. She jumped down and walked away.

"Would you like to try first?" Seren turned the machine towards her.

"If you insist.." she gave her a shy smile. Seren put the money in the machine and stepped out of her way.

Chi stepped up and grabbed ahold of one of the sides to steady herself. She was looking at various areas of the harbor, now lit up with lights. She went from right to left, taking in the sights and the skyline at night. "Breathtaking." she whispered. "Everything looks so much different at night." She turned to Seren. "Maybe you should have a look now. I don't want to hog up all the time."

"You could've looked longer, if you wanted to."

"No, I'm done. You can take a look now. She stepped down and Seren hopped up to the machine. She turned the machine side to side a few times. "Yeah, you're right. Everything does look much cooler at night."

....

Xanthe was "scoping" out the area for any potential threats or mysterious sightings like from her Top 10 YouTube videos. "Mmm, nothing to report here." she acted.

"Roar!!" Nila jumped up in front of the binoculars.

Xanthe leaned back from the scope of the machine holding in a squeal of surprise. She quickly recovered and cleared her throat. "Yeah, nice try, Nila. But you need to do better than that to scare me." she placed a proud hand on her chest.

Nila chuckled. "You know it's okay to be scared once in awhile, Xanthe."

"Pffft." was all Xanthe said.

Blanca's turn was almost up as she used the last bit of time to look about the area once more. She turned to the left towards some nearby shops, catching a few people in the lens of the machine. A young-looking stranger with freckles caught her eye. He was ordering something at a booth. He gave some money to the guy at the counter and he handed him his change and a hotdog. From the looks of it, topped with ketchup, relish and hot flakes. He took a huge bite out of it. TIMES UP.

It took Blanca a second to realize that her time was up and that she had to give way to the next person behind her.

...

"Looks like the time is almost up. You wanna use up the last few minutes?" Seren asked Chi.

"Alright." she smiled.

Seren jumped down and Chi stepped up, looking at the sights again. "What a dazzling place..." As Chi was enjoying the sites of the city, the pole of the machine snapped. She screamed as she fell off of the dock and into the water.

"Chi!" Seren jumped into the water and grabbed her, holding her up as she held onto the wooden leg of the dock. Her sisters ran to the edge.

"Okay, this is getting pretty old." Xanthe grumbled.

Nila pulled the water up, lifting the two girls back onto the dock. With a swipe of her hand, Nila whisked the water away from them, throwing it back into the water.

"Thanks Nila." the two told her.

"It was nothing." she said. "But you two really need to be more careful."

"The pole just snapped!" Seren exclaimed.

"Just like how the peddles just _'broke'_ on the boat?" Xanthe raised an eyebrow.

"Well.. yes!" shouted Seren.

"Look." Blanca cut in before Xanthe said anything else smugly. "Let's just try to be careful next time." she turned to Seren. "We still have that surprise from Seren, after all."

"Yeah.. there's still that." said Seren, unsure.

.........

After a few turns and very careful stepping up some steps, Chi made it successfully to their destination. "Seren, can I open my eyes now?"

"Nope." Seren giggled, now having a bit of hope with this surprise she had for her.

The sound of a very loud horn blew through the atmosphere. And the platform they were on started moving. Chi gasped. "Seren, are.. we on a ship?!" she opened her eyes.

"Surprise!!" Seren jumped up. They were on one of those ships that takes people through the scenic route of the city. "Yeah, when you were, uh.. passed out, I had this idea that taking a ship wouldn't be half bad. It's relaxing, you get to see more of the area and this ship has some pretty good food!"

Chi started to look a bit.. off.

The ship blew it's horn again and the pace picked up. Chi swallowed.

"Look!" she pointed at the scenery in front of them. "We're even about to pass the-" a burp cut her off. Seren looked back. "Umm... Are you okay?"

She didn't answer her.

"Your friend doesn't look too well." said Blanca.

Chi coughed in front of them. She covered her mouth. "Sorry." she ran away to them to find the trashcan.

"Looks like this surprise was a bust as well." said Xanthe.

Seren deflated. "I didn't want this!" she whined. "I just wanted for us to hang out and have fun! Like, like best buds!"

.........

The captain was kind enough to make an emergency stop by a bridge. Chi was still sick, hanging over the railing of the bridge.

Seren was down in the dumps. Her sisters were standing with her. She sighed. "I'm sorry, guys. I guess I dreamed too big."

"You tried your best, Seren." said Nila, rubbing her back.

"But every single thing went wrong."

Blanca leaned on the rail. "Hmm, it appears so." she said. "But she didn't run away within the first half of the day. She actually stayed through everything so.. that must mean something."

"That she likes getting hurt? Owch!" Nila pinched Xanthe on her arm.

Blanca ignored Xanthe's insult. "Just go up and talk to her again."

Seren hesitated, before nodding to Blanca. She took her time, walking slowly to Chi who still hadn't recovered. Seren waited until she was finished. "I guess we shouldn't had taken that ferry ride." she said softly.

Seren waited for Chi to finish again. She leaned off the banister slowly after a few moments. "Oh, that's okay, Seren. You couldn't have known I get motion sickness.. I mean, it happens sometimes.. That small peddling boat was okay for me, until we hit the choppy waters."

"No, Chi. I'm really, really, REALLY sorry. All I wanted to do was pay you back for the bike and to give you the best day ever, without any mishaps.. But everything just seemed to go wrong." Seren sat down and placed her arms across her knees. "I guess this wasn't such a good day after all.."

"Are you kidding me, Seren?" she stepped off the railing. "I had the best chili cheese fries ever!, I almost caught a home run hit by Jonesy Adams!, I watched the sun set on the river!, I even got to experience a waterfall! By accident of course.. I had a GREAT time!" she crouched down to Seren. "You know, nobody's ever done anything like this before.. I really appreciate you doing all of this for me." she smiled.

"You really do? But what about everything that happened?"

"Something to laugh about later." she said. She got up. "I really enjoyed myself today. Mishaps, shenanigans, evil ducks and all."

Seren laughed. "Well.. that definitely makes me feel much better. So.. I guess this means we're friends, right?"

Chi titled her head. "You say that as if we weren't already."

Seren lit up. _ So we were already friends!! Blanca was right._ Seren got up. "Chi, this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"I..Have a feeling that that's a quote from a movie."

"You know it." Seren chuckled. "You know, we should definitely do movie night sometime."

"Definitely." Chi smiled.

.......

They walked Chi to the bus stop. The bus came within minutes later and Seren gave her a hug before she got on the bus. Chi thought of something she really wanted to say to Seren before the bus pulled off. She ran towards the back of the bus and opened the back doors. "Seren!" her friend turned around. "I don't know how I can ever thank you enough. This has been one of the best days I've ever had."

Seren met her at the two doors. "Then I hope that we can have more days like these."

"Of course!-OW!" the bus doors closed on her good arm and the bus pulled off. Seren tried to catch up to the font of the bus to warn the bus driver, but she couldn't make it.

"Ow!Ow!Ow! Mr. Bus driver sir! Do you think you could open the doors please?! Just a little?!" Chi yelled.

....

Seren watched the bus drive down the street. She saw something fluttering in the wind. It was Chi's Ichiro baseball card. She gasped. "Chi." then she thought about it. "Ah, I'll just give her the card tomorrow." she put the card in her pocket and met her sisters at the corner, not too far from the pond they were at earlier. "Alright, ready guys."

The quadret started walking alongside the pond. It didn't take long for them to hear honks from a duck a few yards ahead of them. It sounded angry.

"Is that that same duck from earlier?" Seren asked.

"Not sure. But I hope it just moves out the way.."said Nila.

The duck came up closer to them, now flailing it's wings and still honking.

"Alright, I'm not for hurting this duck, but at the same time, if we were to get around him, it'll probably just continue messing with us." said Blanca.

"So, what are we going to do?" asked Seren.

"Take the long way." said Xanthe.

"Or maybe we can tame it!" said Seren.

The duck honked louder.

"Yeah, that's definitely not going to happen." said Xanthe.

"Yeahhhh, I vote the long way." said Nila.

"Yeah." Xanthe agreed. She turned around, walking back and everyone else did the same.

Blanca looked back at the duck, making sure it wasn't charging at them.

"Don't worry, Blanca. That duck isn't coming" said Seren.

"Can't be so sure." said Blanca. "It _did_ try to kill us."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure when I'm going to post this next one. (I have to rewatch these two episodes again some time this week, when I get the chance.) But aaaanyway, stay tuned for the next "episode"! 
> 
> Paying homage to:  
Steven Universe season 1 episode 5: Frybo  
Hey Arnold season 1 episode 2a: The little pink book
> 
> Episode 5: Seren misplaces Blanca's "diary" and it falls in the hands of Miranda. Seren, Xanthe and Nila help her to retrieve it.


End file.
